Roll and pitch reducing device for ships



April 14, 1931. A; E. SCHEIN 1,800,408

' ROLL AND PITCH REDUCING DEVICE FOR SHIPS Fileji Jan. 11, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEY P 1931- A. E. SCHEIN 1,800,408

ROLL AND PITCH REDUCING DEVICE FOR SHIPS Filed Jan.- 11, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 g: E BY 2 ZTTORNE Apnl 14, 1931. A. E. SCHEIN 1,800,408

I ROLL AND PITCH REDUCING DEVICE FOR SHIPS Filed Jan. 11, 1928 4'Sheets-Sheet 3 2/ /.9 26 20 /5 24 e2 28 1 so ATTORNE April 14, 1931 A. E. SCHEIN:

{Filed Jar 11, 1928 ROLL A ND PITCH REDUCING DEVICE FOR SHIPS 4 sheetsysheet 4 INVENTOR Patented Apr. 14, 1931 UNITED\STATES PATENT OFFICE ALEXANDER E. SCHEIN, OF FLUSHING, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS,

TO SPERRY GYROSCOPE COMPANY, INC., OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION on NEW yonx ROLL AND PITCH REDUCING DEVICE FOR, SHIPS Application filed January 11, 1928. Serial No. 245,908.

This invention relates to automatic means for minimizing the rolling and pitchlng of ships by means of extraneous fins or horizontal rudders. Such a means possesses-several advantages over other types of stabilizers in that it readily lends itself to the lessening of both pitching and-rolling and is especially adapted for fast ships in which the rolling and pitching is most pronounced. My invention relates particularly to a controlling means for the fins which is designed to turn the fins upon the first incipient rolling or pitching motion and which is designed to move 'fins through an angle roughly proportional to the velocity of roll or pitch and to return the fins to their neutral position as the velocity of roll or pitch approaches zero. In

other words, it is the object of the invention to introduce an anti-rolling or stabilizing 7 torque on ing and pitching.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic plan view of the same.

Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the comparative action of the rolling forces of the sea and the stabilizing effort of my invention on the ship in an ordinary seaway.

Fig.4 is a similar diagram of the conditions in a rough sea.

Fig. 5 isan end elevation, partly in section, of one of the control gyroscopes which governs the fins.

- Fig.6 is'a detail of the centralizing plungers acting on said gyroscope. Fig. -7 is a detail of the contacts connected with the opposite side of the gyroscope.

Fig. 8 is afront view of said contacts.

Fig. 9 is a plan View on a smaller scale of the control gyroscope. i

10 is a sectionthrough the Shlp Sh laterally pro ecting fins or rudders 1 and 2 amidships, and for counteracting the pitching I place a pair of fins 3 and ,4 near the bow and ma also, if desire-d, place a similar pair 5 and .near the stern. Preferably separate control means are provided for the anti-roll ing fins and the anti-pitching fins, each of which is designed to rotate the fins about substantially athwartship axes in such a direction as to exert an anti-rolling and/or antipitching torque on the ship as' the case may be, as the ship advances through the water.

Details of one of the anti-rolling fins 1 is shown in Fig. 10 and it is understood that the other fins may be constructed and actuated. similarly. Said fin is shown as mounted on a shaft 10 journaled within a water -tight compartment 11 intowhich the fin is adapted to be withdrawn when not in use. The said compartment is provided at its rear with a watertight stuffing box 12 and forwardly with a slidable bearing block 13 for the fin. The said fin when extended projects through a slot on the side wall of the ship and is free to be turned'with the shaft 10 about'an athwartship axis or. an axis extending generally in that direction. For adjusting the angular position of said shaft I have shown an electric motor 14 which drives through shaft 15 a pinion 16, said pinion in turn meshing with gear 17 on a long shaft 18 journaled acljacent'its ends in brackets 19 and 20 and having a keyway 23. On said shaft is keyed a second pinion 21 having its hub journalled in a bracket 22 which is slidably mounted on shaft 18 and runway 23. Pinion 21 in turn meshes with a larger gear or gear sector-24 which is keyed to the shaft 10, and also rotatably but nonslidably mounted in bracket 22 as by means of thrust bearing 131. A solenoid brake for I the motor is indicated at 25 as acting on the shaft of the motor, the brake being designed upon the shaft 18, the switches being shown 'in detail in the wiring diagram in Fig. 12

and explained hereinafter.

For withdrawing the fins I may provide within the body of the ship when docking or when the fins are not in use, an additional 9 motor 27 geared through a worm 28 and worm-wheel 29 to a threaded shaft 30. Said shaft is threaded in the hub of a bracket 22 and journaled at one end in bracket 19 and at the other in shaft 10. Shaft is made hollow throughout the greater portion of its length so that when the threaded shaft 30 is revolved the bracket 22 will be drawn rearwardly carrying with it a gear 24, pinion 21, the hollow shaft 10, and the fin 1 itself; A limit switchis shown as provided at each end of the travel of said bracket, each switch being shown as operated by apin 31 slidably mounted in a housing 32 and normally pressed inwardly by a spring 33 bearing on a collar 34 (Fig. 11). When, however, the moving bracket strikes the pin it pushes it outwardly and opens the spring contacts 34 and 35 thereby breaking the circuit to the motor 27.

. Thecontrol of the fins is efiected in such .a

manndr as to cause it to oppose the force exerted by the waves on the ship orrolling effort of the waves at each instance by a force substantially equal and opposite. This may be illustrated by reference to the-diagrams in Figs. 3 and 4.1 In these'figures the area above the centerline to full line A represents the power exerted by the sea on the ship in' imparting roll velocity to the ship,'the ordinates re resenting the velocity or kinetic energy 0 "the ship due to the rolling effort of the waves and the abscissae time in fractions of a second. Dash and dot line B represents the ideal design in which the opposing work done'by the stablilizer per unit of time is always in just the right amount to keep the ships roll down to the desired minimum, say one degree, while the dotted line C represents the velocity of the ships roll from time approximationsecured by the present embodiment of the-invention in which each fin has three positions on each side of neutral proportionate .to the velocity of roll,'the several positions being represented at H, J, and

N in the two diagrams. v A For effecting t is purposeil have showna means responsive to the velocity of roll and a means responsive to the velocity of pitch for controlling the rollin and pitching fins. Each of said means pre erably eomprlses a gyroscope 36-37 having two degrees of free-.

In; that is the gyroscope is constrained to move about two axes only, its spinning axis and an axis at right angles thereto. Gyro 36 is shown as controlling the anti-rolling fins l and 2 and is preferably placed .with its horizontal spinning axis 38 normally athwart-v shi s and its axis of precession 39 vertical, while the gyro 37 has its horizontal spinning axis 40 normally fore and aft and its precession axis also vertical. .The two gyrosco es may thus be identical but are placed di erently on the ship, the gyroscope 36 being shown in detail in Figs. 5 to 9.

' The rotor 41 of said gyroscope is shown as enclosed within a casing 42 which is mounted "for precession aboutthe vertical axis 39 in of precession increases. As shown, the cen-v tralizing means is in the form of a plurality -of opposed plungers 4445, 4445 and 44"45", slidably mounted within threaded housings 50 and pressed inwardly by compression springs 51 so that the inner ends of the uppermost plungers 44,45 abut against an L- shaped downward extension 46 from the gyro casmg (Fig. 6), and also against a fixed stop bracket 49. Said housings 50 are threaded in brackets 52, 52' and may be adjusted by turnin knurled ends 53 andlocked in positioned by nuts 54. The compressionsprings of the topmost plungers are of less efi'ective strength than the other springs. Therefore,

only a small .centralizing torque is exerted for the initial precession of the gyroscope. The second pair of plungers 44'--45' are held somewhat further back in their housings by'lugs 47 on said stationary stop bracket 49,

while the third pair of plungers are held still further back in their housings by lugs 48 on said bracket 49 (Fig. 6), the 'springs'being of increasing effective strength. Therefore,

when the yroscope first starts to process, it is opposed only by the weak springs 51 of the uppermost plungers. If the rolling is of suflicient velocity, however, to cause bracket 46 to come in contact with one of plungers 44' or 45',a second pair ofst'ifier springs is brought. into action in addition to the first pair, while if BLStill greater velocity of roll 1s present the third pairof springs is also: brought into] action. It is obvious that any' desired number of graduated springs may provided.

. Onthe opposite side of are. 7

shown the control contacts for controlling um 1 initial precession of the gyroscopes.

motors 14 and 14 (Figs. 7, Sand 9). Four super-imposed pairs of stationary contacts 56, 57, 58 and 59 and four cooperating trolleys 60, '61, 62 and 63 mounted on the gyro casing are shown, one pair 56 being a common, the second pair of contacts 57, 57' being separated by a small insulating space 64 so that the trolley may come in contact with the one or the other of the live segmentsr in e third pair of contacts 58, 58' is shown as separated by broader insulated section 65 and the fourth pair 59, 59' by a still broader insulated section 66. Said contacts and trol- 15 leys are shown diagrammatically in the wiring diagram (Fig. 12) as a series of annular segments 56, 57, 58 and-59 and cooperating pommon brush or arm E represents the troleys.

Before the fins are withdrawn by motor 27, it is of course necessary that they be aligned with the slots in the ships hull, said slots usually being placed horizontal. Preferably this is accomplished automatically by interlocking the fin controller (i. e. the gyroscope 42 and the motor 27, so that the fins can only be withdrawn when in the correct position. This 'is accomplished by providing the gyroscope with a centralizing locking cone 96 mounted for slidable movement on shaft- 97 toward and away from the gyroscope. Said cone is normally held retracted by spring 98, but may be pushed into engagement with projectlon 99 on the gyro case l2 by hand lever 105, thus locking and centralizing the gyroscope, which, of course, also centralizes the fins. As the cone is moved forward it closes contact 106 in circuit with motor 27 ('Figs. 9 and 10) to with- 40 lr'aw the fins.

The wiring diagram shows both motors 14 and 14', the motors being shown as of the constantly excited field type, said fields being shown at 80 and 80'. A small compensating ieries winding 81 is also shown in series with the armature. Each motor is controlled from a starting relay 74 so that the motor is first started up slowing through starting resistance 82 and then 'ven a'secondspeed when :ela 74 closes to s ort circuit said resistance.

' Eac motor is'also adapted to be driven in .either direction, the controt in one direction being effected by rela s 73 and in the reverse direction by relays 3. Relays 84 and 55%,rePreseIlt any suitable form-of circuit breakrs in series with the motor armature, while themain circuit breaking switch in the main line is shown at 86. Relays 75 control the aforesaid solenoid brake 25. The motor 00 lriving the gyro rotor is represented at 87.

The control of both motors 14' 14" may be identical as shown, except, 0 course, the connections are such that the motors are actu ated to turn the fins oppositely to cour'iteract.- 05 the roll. The aforesaid contactson'thegyroscope control the motors 14 and 1 1 through the system of relays just described in combination with the series of limit switches 26 controlled from each motor or fin, which will now be described in detail. There are eight of said switches shown for each motor, all of said switches having two contact sections,

one switch for each step position of the fin in each direction and two commons and 101, and one section bein live when the gyro is precessed counter-c ockwise and the other when the gyro is precessed oppositely. Thus contact 67 of switch 68 and brush 67 cooperates with contact 57 on the gyroscope, contact 69 of switch 70 with gyro contact 58', contact 71 of switch 72 with gyro contact 59. The conducting segments of each switch are of limited length and positioned so as to interrupt the current su ply when the fin.

is turned through a pre etermined angle. Thus, if the gyro starts to precess in a counter-clockwise direction (Fig. 12) contact of v arm E with strip 57 will complete a circuit through brush 67 conducting-segment 67 of switch 68. This starts the motor 14 in the proper direction through relay 7 3' and thus turns the fin and sector 68 clockwise until the segment 67 moves out from under the brush 67 This breaks the circuit with the motor through relay 73 and 74 so that the fin is immediately brought to rest under the action of the solenoid brake 25 through relay 75, provided, however, that in the meantime contact has not been made between arm Eand one of the next pair of contacts 58. If this has been done, however, a new circuit is established through the segment 69 of switch 70 so that the current is not interrupted until this segment passes from under the cooperating brush 69. Even then the current is not interrupted if in the meantime the gyro has precessed further to close the last contact 59 to complete a circuit, through switch 72.

In such an event the fin is moved through its largest angle to exert its maximum stabilizing eflt'ort. At this time the shipwillbe at its maximum velocity .of roll when it is passing through its vertical position. As the veopen when current is flowing through the companion switches. This is effected by contacts 90 in series with the brgshes; 91 and i which are biased in a closed position by springs (not shown) but which are open when currentis flowing through the windings 90 thereof, said windings being in circuitwith tion. The motor, however, will stop when the contact 92 moves from under brush 91 unless in the meantime the ship has further lessened its rollin velocity so that gyro contact 58 has been roken. In such an event the aforesaid cycle is repeated with respect to switch 7 0' and so on with contact 57 and switch 68.. When the ship comes to rest, therefore, the fin is in its horizontal position. As soon as the ship starts to roll in the other direction, the

arm E moves over the opposing contacts 57 58, 59 as above described completing equiva-' lent circuits through the lower contacts 94 of the rotary switches 68, 70 and 72, and on return movement similar circuits are completed through the upper contacts 95 of switches 72' 70, 68'. Whilethe above sequence is being carried out, it is understood that the same cycle is being repeated with respect to the series of contacts 168, 170, 172, 172, 170' and 168' with respect to the motor 14 on the-opposite side to move fin 2 oppositely.

It'will also be understood that the control. of the anti-pitching fins may be identical in principal for control gyro 37. In this case,

however, the bow fins 3 and 4 are controlled from asingle motor 80 with the shaft. 81 thereof extending across the bow while the stern fins 5 and 6 are also controlled from the single motor 8 0 -with the shaft 81 extending across the stern, each pair of fins being turned in the same direction but with the two, pair being oppositely turned for best anti-pitching action.

Two typical examples'of the operation ofmy device are given in Figs. 3 and 4 described above. As stated, the broken line D or D represents the actual anti-rolling efiort of the fins, or in other words, represents the angular position of the fins with respect to horizontal. InFig. 3, representlng moderate sea conditions, the'ship is assumed to have 'just reversed its roll and is starting -to roll in the other direction at point F. A moment later at G the r0 has made its first contact with contact 5 and the fin startsto move to its first positiongarriving at this position at H where contact 67 has moved out from under brush 67'. Under the conditions shown in ried the v fin remains in that posit on until point I is reached where the gyro is assumed to make this figure the rolling velocity has not cargyro onto'the contact 58' so that the its ,second contact with 58. The fin then is moved to the next osition at J where con tact between 69 an 69' is broken. Again to reverse the motor.

the re has not moved over into contact with 59' so that the fin remains in that position. At point 3 near midpoint K the contacts 59 are assumed to close momentarily, but are opened again at, 3 before the time lag of the system has been overcome and the fin moved materially. From K to L the ships rolling velocity starts to decrease slowly but its velocity is sufiicient to maintain the gyro on contact 58' until point L is reached. At this point the gyro breaks its second contact with 58, thereby breakingthe .circuit through second solenoid 90. and completing the circuit through the contacts of switch This brings the fin back to its horizontal position at M, as the contacts 7 0, and ,68 are designed to operate successively without pause, the ships angular velocity reaching zero .a moment later. 1

More severe rolling conditions are shown in Fig. 4:. Here the gyro again makes contact with 57" at G, but unlike the case in Fig. 3 the gyro makes it second contact with 58 and its third contact with 59 before contact 67 is turned from under brush 67" and before contact 69 is turned from under brush 69 respectively. The fin, therefore, moves uniformly to point N. At this .point it is assumed that the stabilizing force of the fin has become great enough-to reduce the ve-, locity of roll below the maximum for which the apparatus is set. This causes contact of the gyro with 59 to breakthe'reby throwing in the reverse relay until point ,O is reached where contact between contact 71 and 90 is broken. The ship is then assumed to again gain velocity, which again causes the gyro. to contact with contact 59 and move the fin to its extreme position at N. Again the velocity of roll is decreased, the fin being moved back one step to 0 where .the velocity remains substantially constant until the point P is reached, where the velocity of roll steadily decreases and the fin is moved back through its second and first positions to its horizon-v .tal position at M. By this means it will be.

seen that an approximation has been reached to the theoretical work required for the stabilizer, since D and D closely approximate lines B and B In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, I have herein described the principle and operation of my invention, together with the apparatus which I now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof, but I desire to have it understood that the apparatus shown is only illustrative and that the invention can be carried out by other -means. Also, while it is designed to use the various features and elements in the combination and relations described, some of these, may be altered and others omitted without interfering with the; more general results ships axes, and means responsive to the ve the gyroscope precesses, corresponding limit contacts connected with 7 outlined, and the invention extends to such use.

Havmg claim and describediyinvention, what I desire to secure by Letters Patent locity of rolling for actuating said motive means-to turn the rudders an amount dependent upon the velocity of roll, comprising a control gyroscope having a plurality of contacts adapted to be completed successively as and a plurality of said rudders.

- cession on pitch of the ship,

v 'portional to 9 7 ably mounted on the ships ,withdrawn, a gyroscope 3. An anti-rolling and pitching mecha-- nism for ships including'a control gyroscope mounted for precession on roll of the ship,- a second'ontrol gyroscope mounted for preanti-rolling fins, means governed by the first-named gyro portional to the extent of precession ofsaid rst gyroscope, anti-pitchingfins and means governed by the second-named gyroscope for turning said last named fins an'amount prothe extent of precession of said second mentioned roscope.

" 4.. In a ship stabllizer,

a pan of fins rotathulland adapted to project laterally into the water, the hull having slots through ,for governing the angular position of the fins, means for withdrawing the fins, and means for locking the gyroscope in a position to align the fins withsaid slots when said withdrawingmeaps 1s a'ctuated.

5. In a shi ably mounte stabilizer, a pair of fins rotaton the ships ull and adapted to project laterally into the water, the hull having slots through which said fins may be withdrawn, a,.gyroscope for governing the angular position of the fins, means drawing the fins, means for locking the gyroscope in a pos'tion to align the fins'with said slots, and mean'sbrought into action by said locking means for actuating said withdrawing means.

6. An anti-rolling and itching device for ships, including a pair 0 anti-pitching fins forward, a pair of anti-pitching .fins aft, a constrained gyroscope for turning said pairs contacts connected with said fins,

oppositely to oppose pitchin portionate to the velocity 01% pitch, a pair of anti-rolling fins amidships, and a constrained gyroscope for turning .said lastnamed fins oppositely ,to oppose rolling an amount proportionate to the velocity of roll. for reducing rolling 7. A ship stabilizer comprising a pair of normally horizontal an amount pro- I fins adapted. to project substantially amidmotive means for turning said fins in opposite directions about'a-thwartships axes, and means responsive to the velocity of rolling for actuating said motive means toturn the fins an amount dependent upon the velocity of roll, comprising a control gyroscope having'a plurality of contacts adapted to be completed successively as the gyroscope pre-. cesses, a plurality of corresponding limit and a brake for locking the fins in position when said motive means stops. i i

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature.

ALEXANDER E. SOHEIN.

ships,

scopefor turning; said fins an amount prowhich saidfins may be for with- 

